| Will Hanrahan | |
|---|---|
Will Hanrahan at the Insight Conference 2004 |
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| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Journalist, Producer |
William (Will) Hanrahan is a British television and radio producer best known for working on BBC programmes such as Watchdog and Good Morning.[1] Since 1994 he has headed an independent TV company[2] and is also a law graduate with considerable experience in consumer and legal programming.[3]
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Journalist, Documentary-maker and factual TV specialist, Will Hanrahan grew up in Bootle, an area near Liverpool, Merseyside, Will Hanrahan was schooled at St. Benet's, now St. Benedicts, and St. Mary's College [4] in Crosby. He trained on the Bootle Times newspaper.[5] He subsequently embarked on a career as a radio and television journalist notably reporting from the Rwandan Civil War. His live coverage of the barren existence in a refugee camp and an orphanage in Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire) was critically well-received. He has also presented programmes for the BBC, including serving as a reporter or presenter for BBC's Watchdog, the Good Food Programme, Family Matters, On The Line, Verdict, The Arts and Crafts Hour and both the early and late-evening news. He co-presented the breakfast show Good Morning.[1] as well as presenting for Buyers Guide and Blue Chip for BSkyB's .tv technology channel.[6] and, in 2007, for the Sunday Breakfast show for BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire.[7] This brief spell on the radio echoed Hanrahan's earlier career on BBC Radio York and BBC Radio Five Live where he fronted a mid-morning segment related to food issues. Hanrahan's voice and reporting style continues to be heard on documentaries such as the 2008 Suffolk Strangler for Sky Television, the story of the serial killer, Steve Wright. The programme was Hanrahan's third major television documentary. His self-produced Dunblane - A Decade On for Channel Five (re-versioned for Sky TV's Crime Investigation Network as Dunblane Remembered in 2008) [8] saw him return to the scene of the massacre of schoolchildren by deranged gunman Thomas Hamilton. Hanrahan had covered the tragedy for BBC television at the time and met again some of those he had interviewed in March 1996. In 2009, Hanrahan was a reporter and writer of a series of Documentaries related to Crime for Sky TV.
Alongside his documentaries, he has produced entertainment programming such as the four-year ITV series, Star Lives, and the BBC comedy Trexx and Flipside.[9] At a Broadcast conference held in 2004, Hanrahan claimed that his childhood would see him watch a gripping drama, a compelling news programme and a comedy and appreciate the values and skills of them all and it was this varied approach to programme-making which he preferred to any single genre.
Today Hanrahan, who has served as an elected board member on the Producers Alliance group PACT, heads up his own Independent company.[10]
Will Hanrahan launched his own media production company, Hanrahan Media, in 1994, with Fatherhood, a series of TV essays for BBC One.[1] Hanrahan Media has been producing a wide range of programs, such as factual entertainment shows for ITV and Sky One. Notable programs produced by the company include Star Lives, SuDoKu Live, and Carol Vorderman's Brain Game, as well as documentaries for ITV and Channel Five. Hanrahan himself has most recently produced a documentary marking the 10th anniversary of the Dunblane massacre.
The company has received eight Royal Television Society awards or nominations, its latest in 2009 for Best News and Current Affairs and Best Documentary,[11] and remains a top 50 Indie in the UK.[10]